If only they could talk ...

How often do we say this, particularly when a lost dog is found or some poor little creature has been badly treated?  Well, perhaps we'll never hear them speak but scientists are working hard to at least help us understand what they are thinking. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta have been training our four legged friends to lie still in an MRI machine for 15 seconds Long enough to map their brain activity.

The scientists got the idea when they discovered that dogs had played a vital part in the capture of Osama bin Laden. If they could be trained to jump out of helicopters, surely they could be trained to stay quiet in an MRI machine.  The first experiments were to see whether appropriate areas of the brain would be activated in anticipation of an award. They were. It's early days but they hope among other things to prove that dogs have empathy with their owners and to see if they use sight or smell to recognise them.